Scotland Housing Awards 2024

Aico, an Ei Company, are the European market leader in home life safety, pioneering new technologies and offering high quality alarms, developed and manufactured in Ireland. All Aico alarms meet UK standards and offer a variety of sensor types to guarantee protection for every home, the cornerstone of which is delivering education, quality, service and innovation. In 2020, Aico expanded their Connected Home offering with the acquisition of leading Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider, HomeLINK. HomeLINK are a multi-award-winning high-tech software team within Aico that leverage cutting edge home integration and analytic technologies to address the needs of social landlords and their residents.

SafeDeposits Scotland is the country’s leading tenancy deposit protection scheme, protecting deposits for approximately two thirds of the market. The only tenancy deposit scheme based in Scotland, SafeDeposits is a not-for-profit organisation and surpluses generated are donated to its grant giving charity, the SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, which aims to promote education, training and best practice in Scotland’s private rented sector.

Kingdom Housing Association was established in 1979 to provide housing and support
to single vulnerable people in Fife. Since then, they have become one of Scotland’s
leading housing associations working in East Central Scotland, providing a range of
affordable housing and support services to meet a wide range of needs.

Kingdom Housing Association is the parent company within the Kingdom Group of
companies and they have two wholly owned subsidiary companies, Kingdom Support &
Care (KSC) and Kingdom Initiatives (KI). The Grange St Andrews LLP represents a
groundbreaking partnership with the University of St Andrews.

Kingdom Support and Care is a Community Interest Company providing a full range of
care and support services to help people live independently in the community. Kingdom
Initiatives is a non-charitable subsidiary providing mid market rented housing. Grange
St Andrews LLP is a limited liability partnership with the University of St Andrews, in
which Kingdom Initiatives has a majority stake, delivering affordable housing for
post-graduate students and University staff in St Andrews. All Kingdom companies
progress activities that contribute to achieving Group objectives.

Together, the Kingdom Group delivers a diverse range of services that reflect the
Group's mission to provide more than a home. These include:

● Providing high-quality, affordable and sustainable homes across a range of
tenures and wraparound services that support customers and their families to
achieve their potential.
● Providing personalised support services, including care at home and housing
support, employability and initiatives to tackle homelessness, delivering
life-changing outcomes.
● Supporting communities to thrive through the work of community initiatives and
wider-role services, collaborations and partnership working.

Kingdom’s commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience is
underpinned by its Values-to-Vision approach adopted by staff at all levels. Linking the
CARES Values (Customer, Accountable, Respect, Efficient, Supportive) with personal
objectives and learning and development plans through to the ultimate Vision.

The Kingdom Group is an accredited Living Wage Employer.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) is the membership body for, and collective voice of, housing associations and co-operatives in Scotland. We represent 131 housing associations and co-operatives, or 96% of the sector, and our members provide almost 300,000 homes for over half a million tenants. We exist to represent, connect and support our members.

Our vision is that our members are central to Scotland’s social and economic recovery and renewal. It is everyone’s right to live in a safe, warm and affordable home, in a thriving community. Our members are uniquely positioned as community anchors across Scotland, supporting people and their communities. 

Our mission is to sustain and strengthen the impact our members have on people and communities across Scotland.  

Since our founding in 1967, the University of Stirling has always been driven by transformative thinking and a spirit of innovation. Our mission is to do everything we can to give our students the knowledge and expertise to make their impact in the world.

Everything we do makes a positive difference to people's lives. We are an agent for change, connecting people, innovating and transforming the lives of our students, staff and the global communities we serve. We have a constant desire to innovate and improve in order to make a difference to society. It’s how we’ve earned our global reputation for high-quality teaching and internationally acclaimed research.

Our Housing Studies postgraduate courses offer a unique combination of academic study delivered online and on-campus, helping to build the careers of those working in housing and professional work experience for those new to the sector. The accreditation by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) means students meet the requirements for chartered membership of the CIH on completion of the course.

ALACHO is the representative organisation for senior housing and homelessness professionals working in Scotland’s Councils and Health and Social Care Partnerships.

Our purpose is to provide impartial advice and comment to support the development of legislation, policy and practice in housing and homelessness nationally and locally and to promote best practice and improved outcomes from our housing at all levels. 

To achieve this, we will work with our members, tenants and service users, COSLA and the Scottish Government, the CIH, registered social landlords and other organisations in the statutory and voluntary sector to:

In all our work we will seek to develop a human rights-based approach that supports the delivery of the public sector equalities duty, reduces inequality and challenges discrimination in all areas of service delivery. 

ALACHO is a non-party political organisation, we recognise and respect the political leadership in local government, the role of COSLA as the representative voice of Scottish local Authorities and of tenants’ organisations in representing the views and interests of tenants.  In all our work we will seek to reflect the diversity of local conditions and housing systems and the varying needs of all Scotland’s communities.

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland and has a range of responsibilities that include: the economy, education, health, justice, rural affairs, housing, environment, equal opportunities, consumer advocacy and advice, transport and taxation.

Fife Council’s Housing Service manages landlord services to 30,000 houses in the kingdom and we support and assist 2000 homeless households each year.  We are focussed on continually improving the services that we provide to our customers, which is why we prioritise access to training, further education, apprenticeships and employment opportunities through our, recently founded, Housing Training Academy. 

C~urb provides sector leading property development, management and maintenance services, throughout Scotland. Creating sustainable communities is our central aim, and we do this by building sustainably, maintaining homes efficiently and by managing ethically.

We aim to minimise our impact on the environment and where we can, reverse Carbon emissions and c~urb greenhouse gases.

We’re new, but more than 60 years in the making. Originally, formed to provide dedicated services to the Link group of companies, C~urb was formally constituted in 2022, to bring its expertise to a wider market including RSLs, Local Authorities and the Scottish Government, as well as private companies and investors.

We are unique; providing full end to end asset development, maintenance and management services, or bespoke individual functions, tuned to our clients’ needs.

Building Homes: We deliver one of Scotland’s largest affordable housing programmes, through a highly expert, fully managed professional client service, delivering award winning new homes to Net Zero standards.

Maintaining Homes: We are an ISO 9001 and ISO 45001 accredited service providing a high quality reactive, compliance and void repairs service across Scotland’s central belt, managed from our Repairs hub in Falkirk. Complementing this, is our highly skilled installation teams, delivering major component renewals in tenants’ homes across Scotland. 

Managing Homes: Our property management service is as diverse as it is professional; administering Scottish Government contracts, delivering Factoring services to homeowners and managing a large Private Rented Sector portfolio across Scotland, including our award-winning Private Sector leasing scheme for The City of Edinburgh Council.

Routes to housing is a project that looks to inspire young individuals to pursue careers in the housing sector and view housing as a career destination of choice. The project promotes the importance of housing as a profession, spreads awareness of the various opportunities available and showcases the benefits whilst also defining career pathways within the sector, addressing skills shortages and promoting staff development. We want to build relationships with stakeholders, work to identify gaps in the market and come up with solutions to challenges. If you are interested in getting involved with the project or would like more information please contact Mollie Stephen on mstephen@sfha.co.uk  

Elderpark Housing is into our fiftieth year as a locally based housing association. We are based within Govan with further homes in Ibrox, Kinning Park and Cessnock and currently own and manage over 1300 poperties for social rent.

The association has a vision to help create ‘a vibrant neighbourhood where everyone can prosper’ and every decision it takes is based upon these principles through providing high quality homes, supporting tenants within the community and ensuring that our people are achieve their full potential. 

As a successful award winning local housing association who has been a part of the local community for almost fifty years we remain committed to ensuring those living within Elderpark have the opportunity to thrive.

Located in the heart of the city centre DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central hotel is just 10 minutes’ walk away from Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central railway stations. The hotel has 304 stylish guest rooms and suites, all with complimentary WIFI, a 40-inch LCD TV, work desk and 24-hour room service. Select an executive room for access to our executive lounge or choose a suite with separate living area and kitchenette. De-stress with a workout or swim in our 3D Leisure and Health Club or take it easy with a drink in Cask & Clyde Bar. This contemporary bar offers food throughout the day plus craft beers and creative cocktails. Our Cask & Clyde restaurant is proud to offer classic dishes with a contemporary Scottish twist with vibrant atmosphere and live music every Friday at 8pm. With 200 onsite car parking spaces and 11 flexible meeting/function rooms the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow is the ideal venue for conferences, meetings and events from 10 to 1,500 guests.

Wheatley is Scotland’s leading housing, care and property-management group, providing homes and services to around 210,000 people in 19 local authority areas across Scotland. 

Wheatley’s partner organisations remain firmly rooted in their local communities, whilst drawing on the strength, size, scale and resources of the Group to contribute on a regional and national level to affordable housing, care and community regeneration across Scotland. 

The Group offers an award-winning range of wraparound services aimed at ‘Making Homes and Lives Better’ for its customers.